Charred
by booksonclouds
Summary: It was supposed to be Hazel's perfect day. A wedding cake, a wonderful dress, and her best friend. Everything is about to change when two giants arrive at the occasion. Wait, where is Frank's piece of wood?


**A/N: Hello there! If you're looking for a happy little story, then this isn't the story to read. I was in a sadistic mood yesterday (don't ask me why xD), so I came up with this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Heroes of Olympus or any of the characters in this story.**

**Warning: Slight spoilers from the Son of Neptune. Takes place a few years after Gaea has been defeated.**

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><p><strong>Hazel Levesque<strong>

The sun shone down on the occasion while a light breeze slithered through the trees. Fluffy white clouds dotted the sky, but not the rainy kind. Friends made their way to their seats in front of the classical wedding display. White steamers and balloons were strung to almost everything, save the guests. Laughter and chatter rang through the crowd, all waiting for the celebration to start.

Glorious.

Hazel Levesque, who was nervously twiddling her fingers, was in a small "ready shack" for all the bridesmaids to sparkle her up. One small problem, Hazel wasn't exactly the sparkly type person. She felt freer on her horse, Arion, with her leather boots and blue jeans on.

Another thing that wasn't adding to the problem was how late they were getting started. First off, it took about half an hour to sew a small hole in the dress that had randomly appeared. Hazel had tried to tell them she could go without it; she really _did_ try to persuade them. But the bridesmaids said her ragged t-shirt and pants wouldn't cut it.

Secondly, the cake accidently fell over when Hannibal the elephant got a little too close to it. Very sad too, because Hazel was really looking forward to eating a slice. They decided to settle with the other refreshments instead, which were cookies and punch.

Thirdly, as if there weren't enough tweaks in her special day, she kept thinking about the dream she experienced the night before. If she thought about it a little too hard, she would go into a short daze. Not exactly like the blackouts she had a long time ago, but more of a smaller version.

_If only I knew more about it, _Hazel thought. Her vision started to fuzz up, and she realized her mistake a little too late. The bridesmaids gasped as Hazel fell over while they were doing her hair.

"_Hazel, his time has come," they roared. Sort of gross as well, since they had smelly fish breath. In front of her were the two twin giants, Aloadae. She remembered it from one of the myths she had read about, but she couldn't quite recall what had happened in the story._

"_Who's time?" Her voice quivered as she tried to stand bravely. Hadn't all the giants been defeated a few years ago? _

_Both of them laughed, quite an eerie mixture of two. _

"_We will die, yes," one said, smiling mischievously. Hazel had no idea why he was so happy about that idea. _

"_But we have one last thing to fulfill before our death arrives," the second told her. _

_Then Hazel remembered. These were the giants that the gods had thought would be okay to let live a little bit longer. Since it was a pain to find both of them, everyone had just ignored them. They weren't exactly too harmful either; they could be defeated pretty easily. The only bad thing about these two twin giants was you had to kill them at the same time._

"_When he is killed, she will thank us."_

"_Who are you talking about?" Hazel demanded._

"_Why, Mother Earth of course!" they laughed._

_Hazel's heart felt like it had froze. "She's dead. Gone. Defeated."_

_One twin closed his eyes and said, "Mother Earth may be in her place away from harm, but she is always there, Daughter of Pluto."_

"_She will make sure we are never forgotten in the world up above," the second twin spoke. "She assured us this."_

"_Wait, who are you coming for?" Hazel asked. Her eyes glared at the giants, but she couldn't help herself from shaking. The memories of the war against the giants filled her mind._

"_That's right, be afraid," they said in unison. "We're coming for the one Gaea feared the most. The son of Ma-"_

The dream shifted away as she was slapped many times on the cheek.

"Hazel!" one yelled. "Wake up!"

She obliged and rubbed her eyes, looking at the clock.

"I was out for ten minutes?" The look of disbelief on her face must've been something, because a bridesmaid smiled with relief.

"You blacked out or something," she told Hazel, patting her hand. "Are you sure you want to do this? We can postpone it for another day, when everything is running right."

"Yeah, we know a lot of stress has happened today," another piped.

"I'm fine," Hazel reassured them. She didn't want him thinking she was having second thoughts about their wedding. Yeah, it was her wedding, and she felt like she was going to have a mental breakdown.

She thought about Aloadae for a second, but decided to push it out of her mind. They were just trying to mess with her on her big day. Plus, the camp was reinforced with the most trusted campers on the lookout, and there was no way the giants could get out of their sight.

First thing was first. Wedding, and then dealing with the giants. It sounded absurd to put something so smallish in comparison first, but she would make sure _he_ was safe.

She took a deep breath and put her hand into her wedding dress pocket. She had insisted the dress had pockets, much to the dressmaker's distaste. The familiarity of the stub of wood greeted her hand.

"Let's go then," a bridesmaid said cheerfully.

"Just don't go out on us again," one joked.

_I can do this, _Hazel told herself. _It'll be… Fun. _She almost laughed at her word choice, but she didn't know how else to reassure herself.

A bridesmaid took her hand and led her out of the "ready shack." The rest of them followed behind, making sure the white dress didn't accidently get caught under Hazel's feet. Wow, what a breathtaking sight that would be.

Hazel tried to clear her head from those types of thoughts.

_I'll be Hazel Zhang, _she thought. _It'll be wonderful._

She took another deep breath as she was readied at the long aisle of many torturous steps. Yay.

Hazel looked ahead and her heart skipped a beat. There _he _was, as in her future husband, in a dashing tuxedo. He had this wonderful smile as if asking, _Is that my Hazel?_

She tried to keep her cheeks from burning, but it was nearly impossible when she saw everyone giving her winks or smiles from the chairs.

There was Jason giving her a polite smile, and Piper who was slapping Leo as he gave an unnecessary whistle. Percy gave her a thumbs up, and Annabeth nodded as if to say, _You can do it! _Then there was Nico, her brother, hidden in the shadows in the back. She had to turn around to see him, which almost caused her to trip and fall, but she finally got a good look at his expression. He smiled in his way and winked at her.

Finally, after what seemed like several years, she arrived in front of Frank and the minister. She gave him an awkward smile, but he didn't seem to notice it.

The minister said the usual, speaking of togetherness and undeniable love.

"Frank Zhang, do you take this woman to be your wife?" the minister asked Frank, who looked one-hundred percent sure.

"I do."

"And Hazel Levesque, do you take this man to be your husband?"

She thought about it for a second. She couldn't think of one reason why she shouldn't, and that the moment was perfect.

"I-"

An earsplitting scream interrupted her in midsentence. She turned her head and found a horror that would haunt her for many years to come.

A giant was coming straight towards her wedding.

Everyone went wild, screaming from the sight. Some of the campers directed them back to camp to get some weapons, while others just went plain frantic.

"Hazel!" Frank took her hand and they dashed away from the raised surface they were on. Not a second too soon, because a large, hairy foot landed in the spot where they just were.

Another giant had come from the opposite side. That meant there were _two _giants at her wedding, and not just any plain old giants. Aloadae, the twin giants from her dream.

"Come sacrifice yourself, son of Mars, and your puny girl won't be harmed!" one threatened.

"Don't do it, Frank," Hazel warned. She was in pure terror without a weapon, and they were surrounded by both of the giants.

Frank turned and called for help, but help was trying to get weapons at the camp. They were doomed.

"You can die the easy way or hard way, Frank Zhang," the other giant told him. "Which one will you choose?"

He answered them by turning into a large elephant, charging into one of them.

Hazel cursed when she realized there was nothing she could do. She didn't have a weapon or anything for that matter; she really was just a damsel in distress.

She watched as a giant foot was about to crush her. She dove and rolled to the side just in time, dirtying up her wedding dress. So much for that.

Frank was doing as much as he could in elephant form, but when one giant fell down, he had the other giant to deal with while the other one recovered for a second.

Hazel turned and watched as help was coming, with weapons and cannonballs of sort.

She reached into her pocket to clutch the piece of wood, but strangely it was not there. She checked both pockets and realized in horror it had fallen out in the wedding aisle. How could she have been so careless?

Hazel hiked up her dress and ran like the wind to the lifeline. She picked up it up and heard an elephant groan. Frank had turned back into human form and was lying down on the ground.

Help had come, and they circled the giants with arrows and swords. The giants roared as they were slowly being defeated.

Hazel choked back a sob as she ran to Frank's aid. Several healers were there, including Leo and Nico.

"I'm sorry, Hazel," Nico whispered as she walked past him and looked down at Frank. He was badly bruised and was breathing hard.

"Frank." Hazel reached her hand out to him, and he grabbed it like it was his last hope.

"Hazel," he croaked. It looked like his ribs were broken, along with many important bones. Of course, she couldn't tell how bad it really was.

"Where's the piece of wood?" he asked.

"Right here." She fumbled around and brought it out from her pocket. She shook as she held it out for him.

"I want you to burn it."

She didn't believe she heard him right. "What?"

"I want you to burn it, Hazel." His expression was so painful; she knew he was beyond help now.

"What? No!" Tears streamed down her face. "There has to be another way! You can live, Frank Zhang. You _will _heal." She turned to the healers in reassurance but they gave her a pitied look.

"If you don't burn it now, Hazel, he'll just suffer more until he dies," a camper muttered darkly.

"No… No… I can't." She couldn't see out of her own tears now.

"Hazel," Frank croaked. "I'll see you there. I'll wait for you."

"I love you." Hazel closed her eyes and gripped the stub of wood.

Frank sighed and gave her a pained smile. "Then that's all I really need."

"Leo," Hazel said, but he already knew he was needed. She hekd Frank's hand and placed the piece of wood on the palm of her hand.

Leo stepped forward and said nothing. Then the flames danced upon Hazel's hand and Frank's life.

The fire didn't hurt as much as the pain of losing him. Frank slowly started to disappear. It was like an unwanted nightmare, a disgusting story.

In the background, the giants fell and the campers yelled. Time seemed to slow down. A slow trickle of smoke wafted from the burning of the wood, but that was it. The piece of wood slowly blackened and charred.

"I love you too," he said as the piece of wood faded to ash. Hazel clenched her hands together, the smell of smoke still in her nostrils.

"I'll see you there then."


End file.
